fMRI can probably spot it for people like myself who are fully aphantasic.
But:
1. "Imagine a table. There is a ball on the table. The ball rolls off the table onto the floor."
2. "From memory, what color was the ball? The table? The floor? What did you see under the table?"
Neither I nor any other, uh, aphants, that I have known have answers to those questions. Imagination still works, and answers to those questions can be produced interactively if handled appropriately, but, ex: we weren't imagining colors and we didn't see anything at all much less "under the table".
Alternative:
1. "What do you think people do, specifically, when they "count sheep" to go to sleep?"
Our answers to that should just be hilarious for you. Hi-larious.
Understand that we thought you folks "visualizing in your minds eye" were speaking metaphorically. Entirely metaphorically.
But:
1. "Imagine a table. There is a ball on the table. The ball rolls off the table onto the floor."
2. "From memory, what color was the ball? The table? The floor? What did you see under the table?"
Neither I nor any other, uh, aphants, that I have known have answers to those questions. Imagination still works, and answers to those questions can be produced interactively if handled appropriately, but, ex: we weren't imagining colors and we didn't see anything at all much less "under the table".
Alternative:
1. "What do you think people do, specifically, when they "count sheep" to go to sleep?"
Our answers to that should just be hilarious for you. Hi-larious.
Understand that we thought you folks "visualizing in your minds eye" were speaking metaphorically. Entirely metaphorically.